The present inventions relate to software development systems, and more specifically, to revision-control systems for development systems that provide conflict avoidance.
During a software development project, a team of developers may work on source code, documentation, and/or graphics, stored in various files. Each developer may potentially change any file, and a change to any file may potentially trigger a need to change one or more other files. Each developer must remain alert to changes implemented by other developers that might impact his or her work, so that the developer can if necessary make compatible changes or coordinate compatible changes with the other developers. To manage change during development, a development project may rely on a revision-control system (RCS). An RCS may provide features for storing files in a source-code repository, for designating one or more versions of the project, for allowing a developer to check out copies of files, and for allowing the developer to check the copies back into the repository. An RCS may provide features for merging differing copies back into the repository. The merging process may reveal conflicts that must be resolved before the revised product can be built. For example, changes implemented by one developer may conflict with changes implemented by another developer working on the same file or on a different file.